Diet with Dr. Tabor

Don’t Let Your Workouts Slow You Down!

that the women burned less calories outside of their workout on days that they exercised.

Vigorous-Intensity Exercise. In women exercising at a vigorous intensity, the amount of total energy burned was LESS on days with treadmill exercise (~450 Calories) than on days without treadmill exercise (~520 Calories), suggesting that the women in this study were reducing the amount of physical activity they did outside of the structured program on days they exercised.

These are fascinating results that suggest we might automatically compensate for any structured exercise program to which we commit if we are not careful. According to this study, the greatest risk appears to come with vigorous-intensity exercise. In this group of women, those that committed to vigorous-intensity exercise on average reduced their non-treadmill physical activity so much that they burned more calories on non-exercise days than they did on exercise days. While this reduction in non-treadmill physical activity was seen in both groups of women, it was clearly more pronounced in women following a vigorous-intensity program. These findings make it clear that we need to educate individuals deciding to start a structured exercise program about the importance of maintaining their normal levels of physical activity in addition to their exercise program in order to achieve the best possible results.